Doomed Confessionary: Panagiotis, Christos, Babis, Nikos & Kaiti (Empty Frame)
Photos by Nikos Katsaros
Empty Frame from Athens, Greece are one of the most prominent and pioneering bands of the Greek alternative scene.
The band has just released their fourth full-length album »Underdogs« on March 1st, 2024. Combining heavy rock with classical instruments such as violin and cello, Empty Frame have created their angriest album to date with heavier and post elements taking over their sound.
Empty Frame are Panagiotis Fetsis (bass, vocals), Christos Kallimanis (guitars), Babis Vasileiadis (drums, percussion), Nikos Solomos (violin) and Kaiti Pantzari (cello, vocals).
Can you say a few words about your band?
Empty Frame started off as an alternative rock band back in 2005. The main goal was to incorporate classical instruments such as cello and violin into the rock spectrum. Fast forward to 2024, we have just released »Underdogs«, which we feel is the heaviest and most stylistically focused release thus far.
What was the biggest challenge for the band last year?
Recording and putting the finishing touches to our record and being ultimately mostly absent from the gig scene. Being patient was probably the hardest thing we did!
What can you be most proud of so far?
Our initial hope was to put out our first record, therefore getting to having released four and most importantly, having a great time and camaraderie between us as a tight unit is the most crucial thing to playing music, we pride ourselves in that.
What was your biggest regret?
As a band probably we should have been more “open” all these years to try our luck outside Greece. But we are in a great place right now and maybe the time has come!
What was the best concert/tour so far and why?
Well we are just getting started actually. Saturday April 6th we had the live presentation of our new album and now we are getting reade for a couple of more shows. It was a great moment for all of us because we have given our souls to this new effort and we are so happy.
What was the biggest surprise on the music scene for you?
Well in general the rise of streaming, although it is nothing new anymore was a great gamechanger. The way that people listen to music has changed drastically the lest ten – fifteen years and this has actually given the opportunity to a lot of bands to take their music to new places.
What is currently in your heavy musical rotation?
The French band Slift have actually released a huge record called »Ilion«. Probably one of the best heavy/progressive albums of this year!!!
Can you say something more about the music scene in Athens, Greece?
There is a lot to find and a lot to discover to lots of music genres. Especially Greek heavy and progressive scene is really well known outside our country with lots of great bands being heard abroad. Puta Volcano, 1000mods, Planet Of Zeus, Nightstalker, Mother Of Millions, Playgrounded to name a few. You get the picture!!
Where can we see you live this year (concerts/tours)?
We just did a live presentation of our new material here in Athens and we’re currently setting up a tour of our native Greece and there are plans to travel abroad, we’ll see what happens.
What are your plans for the future as a band?
We already have new material in the works and playing music is everything for us, we’ll focus heavily on »Underdogs« for a while, but knowing that we’re bored quickly, our guess is we’ll start the new chapter for our band pretty soon.
How can people best support your band?
Our bandcamp page is the best way for people to support us and buy our records and merch directly from us, but still, listening and sharing the music is always the best thing to do.
Do you have any message for your listeners?
Keep supporting us and we will be there, playing our music, enjoying and trying to keep contact with all of you. Thank you so much!!
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well